Do the deed and find purpose, joy, and peace in the doing.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

          — Theodore Roosevelt

Day 4 NaNo 2024

 

NaNo Note Day 4: Wow, I have made four days with some pretty interesting writing. Today I mainly revised for hours and hours, trying to set something up that was necessary on the heroine. Since it's mental illness, it was not that easy. Because some is subtext and it's what she does and how she does that shows it. — HARD WORK. I also felt I could not move on until I had established this personality. The image is Frederic Leighton's painting of a young woman and the heroine looks like this and she ends up in a pale blue dress like this. She has emotional issues. But they are hard to write. One never knows how to really describe mental illness in a book. Many authors go a bit overboard with this but I realized from research, that things are a bit more subtle.Also these are not personality disorder issues or anything moving into serious psychological issues. They are mainly anxiety disorders and one issue I will not name. I attempted this in an old book of mine and well, I felt it often made the heroine look meek or weak or something similar and I had no intention of repeating that. But I think they are similar heroines. They are both very courageous human beings. There is nothing like being fearless when you are afraid. That's a brave person. It took me three hours just to wrangle with the scene to get it right, to nail down her situation and how the MMC reacted to it. I know I will go over it a dozen more times but for now I can move on and I did, writing 1500 very rough words for the next scene. This I will revise tomorrow into some manageable form. I am not an author who can do really crappy drafts. I end up not using them at all. So I have devised a scheme on how to write every day (normally 5 days a week) and finish a book revising mostly as I go so that I have a really good draft of the story. We learn a lot about the MMC too. I had to revise and revise his scene. I had to put several little things (important details for future) in place. I have notecards for these little things. Because they will make sense later in story. I like my characters. More on them later. WORDS, 1803 total. Most of them so crappy I have to revise ASAP to go on. SONG: Line of Fire by Junip Food: Cream of Wheat for Breakfast. Slice of Toast for snack. 5 Popcorn Chicken and Asparagus for main meal. Tea. Water. Feelings: I am stressed over the Election more than my WIP.

Day 3 NaNo 2024

 

Day 3 Notes: What a day! I had a serious of other tasks to complete today before the Monday work week began. Time fell back and I still got up at the same time, only it was too early. I tried to go back to sleep. I ended up getting up and working some, but broke for other work, just catching bits and pieces of time to write on WIP. At lunch at 10. Day was long and crazy. I did manage to do exactly what I wanted to do. I repaired the ending just as I wrote yesterday and created a new conflict thread and raised the tension. I fleshed out the female protagonists dilemma and interiority. Strong foundation. Pleased. There are some weak sections. I highlighted them for revision later. The next two sections are critical. Songs: Continuation of Iris by Goo Doll and Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan. Same day stuff. Where: Writing at my trusty desk for good luck. Food: Baked Potato, Grill Cheese, Half Hamburger Patty, Zucchini microwaved. Tea and lots of water. 4 big bottles. Feelings: I feel a lot better about the text today than I did yesterday because I revised and added nearly 2000 words to existing scenes. That's how I roll when I am working really well.

Day 2 NaNo 2024

 

Note: Day 2 NaNo: This was a day where I had to incorporate three sections, just a little over a good paragraph a piece from the old draft. That's not as easy as one thinks. It's just not copying and pasting, because the situation and scene it is placed in is nothing like the other and not even the same people and the conversation needs so much more than was never even conceived of when I was writing the previous draft. It was here that I introduced my main protagonist, a young woman (girl) of 18. In a month and few days, she will turn 19. She is named for the flower in the graphic, as her mother had a similar name. We also see the place where she works and what she does, and some of her challenges. This piece is filled with conflict and raises a lot of questions and I see myself revising it before I even finish NaNo. It's that important. The characters are being developed, the situation posed. It was extremely difficult work to place all these details naturally. I floundered at the end. The last 100 words are just not that good. Revision is needed as soon as possible. I want a sharper ending that shows a new conflict growing. I see this in my mind now and have made a comment of it on a post note. First thing I do tomorrow. Words: 2387.: Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan. Iris by Goo Goo Dolls. Food: Breakfast Eggs and Biscuits. Tea. Supper: Turkey Sandwich and some Ruffles and French Onion Dip. Water. Where: I wrote at home at my favorite writing desk which is a big trestle table I bought when 18 years old with my own money. Feelings: This is a lot of damn work and I must be crazy to do it.

Day 1 NaNo 2024

  Note, Day 1 – This year's Nano is rewriting and revising a broken draft from last year. Much of it must be rewriting as many chapters were lost. I changed MMC, too which was a shock. Piecing together what I could keep is more difficult than rewriting I think because it is never in its origin form and is altered to fit the new draft. But I worked on all that "puzzling" and "plotting" and "planning" before NaNoWriMo began, creating an outline with copious notes on how to proceed. Challenging but not impossible. Other significant changes. It was a contemporary now it is a historical which means 90% of what I wrote is rewritten for that change alone. Summary: Never do NaNo and a crappy draft without a plot and lots of other work on story. It will change. Current image: Dragon. This book is a dragon I must slay. Words: 3289. Very good words. Planned. Rehearsed in head for days. I wanted this beginning. Song, Birds by Imagine Dragon and King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men. Food: Baked Potato and Grill Salmon. Lots of water and some tea. Never got out of my pajamas. Where: At home at my writing desk on my Apple Desktop. I feel good about it but have a headache.

Florence + The Machine - Only If For A Night (Ceremonials)

(for my mother who died in 2009)

And I heard your voice

As clear as day And you told me I should concentrate It was all so strange And so surreal That a ghost should be so practical Only if for a night And the only solution was to stand and fight And my body was bruised and I was set alight But you came over me like some holy rite And although I was burning, you're the only light Only if for a night

Sigard the dragon slayer

He was expert in sword-play, in throwing a spear or hurling a javelin, in shield-work, in archery and in riding, and many and varied were the arts of chivalry he had acquired in his youth. He was a wise man, having foreknowledge of future events. He could understand the language of birds. 

     from a description of Sigurd the dragon-slayer

    The Saga of the Volsungs, ed. and trans. R. G. Finch 

Writing quote from Jeff VanderMeer

I also devote a lot of time to learning technique. When I’m writing a novel, even one like this, if I’m reading another novel, I might plug in a technique I just saw used by somebody else in an unusual way. And then take it out again. Just to see how it works.

      — Jeff VanderMeer